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43rd out of 235 books
—
259 voters
Felicia's Journey
Felicia is unmarried, pregnant, and penniless. She steals away from a small Irish town and drifts through the industrial English Midlands, searching for the boyfriend who left her. Instead she meets up with the fat, fiftyish, unfailingly reasonable Mr. Hilditch, who is looking for a new friend to join the five other girls in his Memory Lane. But the strange, sad, terrifyin...more
Paperback, 240 pages
Published
January 1st 1996
by Penguin Books
(first published 1994)
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Wow, this was a slow burner. Trevor has an implacably deliberate sense of pacing and an instinct for telling detail that can make a barely 120-page novel seem bigger on the inside. We are slowly given a vivid picture of a naive young Irish girl who has run away to Britain to find the boyfriend who has made her pregnant and of Mr. Hildick, a middle-aged catering manager at a factory. Hildick befriends the girl, offers her help, but he is not what he seems - he has befriended young girls in troubl...more
Feb 12, 2008
Deirdre
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
irish-literature-studies
Incredibly well written. Haunting, but to date the only book that I have read where I physically threw the book, repulsed by the character.
Felicia’s Journey, by William Trevor, Narrated by Dermot Crowley, Produced by Audiogo ltd. Downloaded from audible.com.
This is a well-written book and, for what it matters, is on the 1001 list of books you should read before you die. In this book we meet Felicia, a working class Irish girl from the 1970’s, from a very strict Catholic family. She runs around with a boy her family not only considers “no good” but also, when he disappears, the rumor is that he’s gone to join the British army to fig...more
This is a well-written book and, for what it matters, is on the 1001 list of books you should read before you die. In this book we meet Felicia, a working class Irish girl from the 1970’s, from a very strict Catholic family. She runs around with a boy her family not only considers “no good” but also, when he disappears, the rumor is that he’s gone to join the British army to fig...more
Die junge Felicia lebt in Irland in einfachsten Verhältnissen. Naiv. Arbeitslos. Mutter tot. Vater erzkatholischer irisch-nationalistischer Holzkopf. Oma fast hundert. Opa von der britischen Besatzungsmacht abgeknallt. Das ganze irische Elend in einem Buch.
Diese Felicia wird jetzt schwanger von ihrem Freund, der in England arbeitet, als Soldat der Unterdrücker. Felicia läuft davon und sucht den Mann ihres Kindes in England. Die Adresse hat sie nicht. Bei ihrer Suche kreuzt sie den Weg verpeilter...more
Diese Felicia wird jetzt schwanger von ihrem Freund, der in England arbeitet, als Soldat der Unterdrücker. Felicia läuft davon und sucht den Mann ihres Kindes in England. Die Adresse hat sie nicht. Bei ihrer Suche kreuzt sie den Weg verpeilter...more
I had read William Trevor's "Love and Summer" and some of his short stories (I'd particularly recommend "Solitude" in the collection "A Bit on the Side") and had always been impressed by his tight plotting and his effortless use of language. He is a master of his form and can be compared to Hardy in the way that he heaps misfortunes upon his stoic characters. So I began reading this story expecting more of the same. Young Felicia secretly leaves her home in rural Ireland, where she is little mor...more
Yeah, so this was on the reading list for my course last year...
It's never good to be 'forced' to read something, but when it's as frustrating as this book was for me.. My gosh! I wanted to give myself papercuts..
Ok, I exaggerate. It's not THAT bad. Hence I gave it 2 stars.
The Good Bits
Mr Hilditch - This character is the reason this book clings to its 2 stars instead of wavering with 1. He makes it worthwhile. What an interesting character! Without his POV parts, I think I would have lost the pl...more
It's never good to be 'forced' to read something, but when it's as frustrating as this book was for me.. My gosh! I wanted to give myself papercuts..
Ok, I exaggerate. It's not THAT bad. Hence I gave it 2 stars.
The Good Bits
Mr Hilditch - This character is the reason this book clings to its 2 stars instead of wavering with 1. He makes it worthwhile. What an interesting character! Without his POV parts, I think I would have lost the pl...more
I had heard that William Trevor was one of the greatest writers still working today. I can't say I disagree, though this book took me a long time to read. I also can't seem to find the right adjective for his style. It's not "meditative" or "subtle" or "understated." It's exactingly stated and very dreamlike. (To that point, one five-page chapter depicts the fuzzy transition out of a dream into an equally surreal waking event. It is truly majestic writing.) So, I'm impatient and maybe a little l...more
Author: William Trevor
Title: Felecia’s Journey
Description: When the naïve Irish teenager finds herself pregnant, she sets out to find her lover in England. She finds instead Mr. Hilditch, who seems more interested in her than might be ordinary. As she becomes more and more desperate, he makes himself more necessary to her. His motives, however, are unclear, as is her future.
Review source: the Penguin bonanza
Plot: The book was interesting, but I found myself being frustrated at the passivity of t...more
Title: Felecia’s Journey
Description: When the naïve Irish teenager finds herself pregnant, she sets out to find her lover in England. She finds instead Mr. Hilditch, who seems more interested in her than might be ordinary. As she becomes more and more desperate, he makes himself more necessary to her. His motives, however, are unclear, as is her future.
Review source: the Penguin bonanza
Plot: The book was interesting, but I found myself being frustrated at the passivity of t...more
With his carefully crafted, starkly rich prose, William Trevor explores some of the darkest corners of the human psyche.
Taking his hand is always a journey...but for Felicia, a journey at once intensely complicated and desolately mendacious!
In the disturbed mind of Mr. Hilditch, a darkness nurtured in childhood and fed (literally) from the ministrations of a famous celebrity chef.
A pudgy young boy with a beautiful and overly patronizing mother who feeds his need to be deceptively caring to you...more
Taking his hand is always a journey...but for Felicia, a journey at once intensely complicated and desolately mendacious!
In the disturbed mind of Mr. Hilditch, a darkness nurtured in childhood and fed (literally) from the ministrations of a famous celebrity chef.
A pudgy young boy with a beautiful and overly patronizing mother who feeds his need to be deceptively caring to you...more
I read this novel on holiday, immediately after Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley’s Game. I had thought of the Highsmith as my murder/mystery romp and the Trevor as my ‘literary’ read. However, they have more in common than I thought. Trevor is also a bit of a murder mystery romp, the first time I’ve ever thought of him in that way. Both novels exercise psychological compulsion; both build intensity and then suddenly switch scene or character. They draw a lot of energy from what they don’t tell you—at...more
Liked it. Effortless and enjoyable, impressive writing. My biggest complaint is the pacing. For a 200-page novel, this felt slow. It felt like a novella stretched into a novel. Lots of flashbacks/backstory, lots of reticence. Reticence to the point of coyness, at times, which is annoying but maybe acceptable for this sort of novel? I was definitely at the edge of my seat. When I was at the edge of my seat, anyway. Lots of times I was slogging through backstory going Yeah, okay, but what happens...more
I think now I will start on a William Trevor marathon--I loved The Story of Lucy Gault, and now Felicia's Journey has drawn me toward Trevor again. I've never been very good about sniffing out all the underlying political and religious tangles in Irish writing, but I do so completely "get" Trevor's take on one of my own persistent questions, one that is possibly my strongest reason for reading at all: how much is enough to make a life?
There is in this book a gradual tightening of the story that...more
There is in this book a gradual tightening of the story that...more
Felicia, a young (17?), pregnant Irish girl leaves Ireland w/ two shopping bags of clothing to find her boyfriend in industrial England; due to his misleading information, she is unable to find him but has run-ins with a series of strangers, including proselytizing Miss Calligary and corpulent monster Mr. Hilditch.
Trevor writes sparingly, almost coldly, brilliantly hiding as much as he reveals. In this novel he uses an interesting method for inserting multiple flashbacks and memories; these are...more
Trevor writes sparingly, almost coldly, brilliantly hiding as much as he reveals. In this novel he uses an interesting method for inserting multiple flashbacks and memories; these are...more
They say no one can tell a story like an Irishman (or woman) and William Trevor is sure testament to that. I was only familiar with his (very powerful) short stories, and plucked this from a used book shelf thinking it was stories I could read on the bus. It is a novel, whose protagonist is a young Irish girl who leaves home to try to find the boyfriend who has left without giving her his address. She knows he meant to. All she knows is that he works in the store room of a lawn mower factory in...more
Now that I am done, I can't help but think that in this book, Trevor is so like Hitchcock in creating an aura of suspended suspense. There were many nuances and concepts that led one to the characters of Felicia and Mr. Hilditch. Their characterizations made them ever so real, yet ever so dreamlike. One felt sorry for the both of them, one so abused, the other so unprepared for life, so utterly stupid.
Neither one of then held any allure but the reader finds them alluring. Mr. Trevor created of c...more
Neither one of then held any allure but the reader finds them alluring. Mr. Trevor created of c...more
'FELICIA'S JOURNEY' was a sad novel from the viewpoint of Felicia, but worrisome and concerning wondering what Mr. Hilditch was up to.
Felicia is a 17 year old girl from Ireland who meets Johnny and becomes pregnant. Johnny must leave Ireland and go back to his home in England but before he dashes off, Felicia is unable to obtain his address. Felicia leaves Ireland on her own and arrives in England in search of Johnny so she can tell him she is pregnant with their child. Felicia only believes tha...more
Felicia is a 17 year old girl from Ireland who meets Johnny and becomes pregnant. Johnny must leave Ireland and go back to his home in England but before he dashes off, Felicia is unable to obtain his address. Felicia leaves Ireland on her own and arrives in England in search of Johnny so she can tell him she is pregnant with their child. Felicia only believes tha...more
Whoa, this isn't the typical kind of book that I would read. But it was on my bookshelf and it was a short-story.
This book reminded me of Edgar Allen Poe's, "The Tell-Tale Heart." Remember reading that one in high school? It creeps you out the entire time your reading it, and you're just waiting for something bad to happen. And it does. Just like this book.
A 17-year old girl, Felicia, goes looking for her summer fling, Johnny, who has left for England without leaving her an address (he's going t...more
This book reminded me of Edgar Allen Poe's, "The Tell-Tale Heart." Remember reading that one in high school? It creeps you out the entire time your reading it, and you're just waiting for something bad to happen. And it does. Just like this book.
A 17-year old girl, Felicia, goes looking for her summer fling, Johnny, who has left for England without leaving her an address (he's going t...more
This is the kind of book that's so masterfully written, it's worth reading twice. The first time, you'll be on the edge of your seat, following the plot. The second time around you'll notice how efficiently the author instills a sense of place using spot-on details, and explores character histories and psychologies. Felicia is a run away from Ireland, Mr. Hilditch is a catering manager with questionable motives who finds her wandering the streets of somewhere-near-Birmingham. The narrative alter...more
Felicia's tale is a short but chilling novel about a young girl from Ireland who gets pregnant by a local boy who's recently joined the army. She runs away from home to find him in the bleak post Thatcher Midlands, and meets an array of characters from the goodhearted to the slightly surreal. It becomes clear as the novel progresses that one of these helpful souls is not as he seems, and Felicia is forced to try and escape for the second time in her short life.
The real skill in this novel is the...more
The real skill in this novel is the...more
Dear William Trevor,
You are a lovely, lovely writer, but I don't think things are going to work out between us. This book is only just over 200 pages, but it took me a full week to read it. And I was on vacation! Initially I didn't really want to read it because I didn't want to see what horrible thing was going to happen to Felicia. Then I did want to see and you refused to tell me. Honestly, I got a bit bored. In addition, I find myself unable to relate to your characters. The reasons for the...more
You are a lovely, lovely writer, but I don't think things are going to work out between us. This book is only just over 200 pages, but it took me a full week to read it. And I was on vacation! Initially I didn't really want to read it because I didn't want to see what horrible thing was going to happen to Felicia. Then I did want to see and you refused to tell me. Honestly, I got a bit bored. In addition, I find myself unable to relate to your characters. The reasons for the...more
A bird s**t on me while I was reading this book. It's so well written that I finished it (after a change of clothes and washing up--please don't think me that weird).
There are a few false quantities and bad sentences, but they're spread out enough that one doesn't mind. There's no "lyricism" that I keep hearing Trevor has; but what he lacks in this he more than makes up for in control, which is just as enviable a trait.
But he loses this control on or about page 157, which is the true climax of t...more
There are a few false quantities and bad sentences, but they're spread out enough that one doesn't mind. There's no "lyricism" that I keep hearing Trevor has; but what he lacks in this he more than makes up for in control, which is just as enviable a trait.
But he loses this control on or about page 157, which is the true climax of t...more
My first exposure to William Trevor. I found the book to be more something like watching a nightmare unfold before you and being unable to stop it. The book got into me, but not like I thought it would. I did not as many readers have feel for sympathy for both characters. I was amazed at some of the sequences of beautiful prose hidden behind the story. It is a very sad book in many ways. It is a book that sounds an almost alarmist tone about the underbelly of society that we never see. I thought...more
I read this book because it is one of those discussed by Will Schalbe and his mother as he noted in "The End of Your Life Book Club." The story is compelling and all the way through it you do not expect that things will turn out well for Felicia. She's left Ireland to search in England's Midlands for the father of her unborn child. Along the way she is befriended by a strange assortment of characters. The tension builds as the reader recognizes the depth of her problems.
Trevor is a wonderful wri...more
Trevor is a wonderful wri...more
what a strange book. When I picked it up (for a book club, of course) I didn't do any research so I had no idea what I was getting in to.
I thought it would be a tale about a girl struggling with unexpected romance and struggling without a mother
little did I know, it was really about a man stalking and hunting a girl and playing little games to ensnare her into his trap (a trap he'd set many times) to kill other girls.
Really, I should have checked it out ahead of time and prepared myself for this...more
I thought it would be a tale about a girl struggling with unexpected romance and struggling without a mother
little did I know, it was really about a man stalking and hunting a girl and playing little games to ensnare her into his trap (a trap he'd set many times) to kill other girls.
Really, I should have checked it out ahead of time and prepared myself for this...more
Fascinating book, but not as good as Trevor's short stories. I found the Canadian-made movie (1999)in some ways superior to the book, as Atom Egoyam (the director) added a fascinating subplot about the "murderer's"(but is he actually a murderer? this idea is left open in the book) childhood to explain facets of his behavior in the movie. On the other hand, the book has a better, more realistic and darker ending, as well as a generally-better (more in-depth, detailed delineation of character) tre...more
This book is a sneaker I read for book club. On the back it mentions Hitchcock but, I had no idea how dark and creepy it would get. Felicia is a trapped naive Irish girl whom nobody seems to value. She runs away from home to England looking for a guy she seems to have been involved with. Felicia runs into Mr. Hilditch, a heavyset catering manager. Felicia is on a slippery slope! Her story seems more plausible if it were 1958 yet it reads like it is more of a contemporary setting. I think someone...more
One of those novels it is fiendishly hard to review without a massive spoiler alert. Felicia is an Irish girl from a Republican family, who comes to the West Midlands in search of the father of her unborn child. On the way she comes into contact with Mr. Hilditch, an overweight loner, who has befriended girls in similar circumstances before. The story is never less than interesting and its direction surprised me once or twice, but I found it depressing rather than moving, there were one or two p...more
I am always surprised I like William Trevor. Twice, I feel asleep on the sofa while reading Felicia's Journey. I never fall asleep on the sofa! And, were it any other book, I'd consider it a bad sign and abandon the book. But I finished this is just a few days. His writing style is absolutely amazing -- he has marvelous way of reading past and present. And, with Trevor, there's always more to be revealed. The story kept wonderfully unwinding until the very end. I enjoyed Love and Summer more, bu...more
A haunting novel with a very simple story, its pages devoted to character and mood.
While I wouldn't describe this as a serial killer story, it was such a relief to see the portrayal of a disturbed individual handled in a sympathetic and realistic way. Creepy, but personal.
I've never understood the shockingly prevalent serial killer genre where the killer is more gimmick than character, usually some variation of the Riddler with no grounding in anything but a sliver of pop psychology.
Felicia's Jo...more
While I wouldn't describe this as a serial killer story, it was such a relief to see the portrayal of a disturbed individual handled in a sympathetic and realistic way. Creepy, but personal.
I've never understood the shockingly prevalent serial killer genre where the killer is more gimmick than character, usually some variation of the Riddler with no grounding in anything but a sliver of pop psychology.
Felicia's Jo...more
I just love William Trevor. Having read Lucy Gault, I thought this would be more of the same and I was happy with that. It's completely different though and because I hadn't read about it beforehand, totally unexpected. Mr Hilditch, who befriends lonely young girls in need of help, is a strange and fascinating character. As we learn more about him, the suspense and frustration builds and in between, we have Trevor's beautiful prose such as his full page description of the plight of the homeless....more
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William Trevor grew up in various provincial towns and attended a number of schools, graduating from Trinity College, in Dublin, with a degree in history. He first exercised his artistry as a sculptor, working as a teacher in Northern Ireland and then emigrated to England in search of work when the school went bankrupt. He could have returned to Ireland once he became a successful writer, he said,...more
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Jul 10, 2012 01:25am